System Restore - disk space

How to Change the System Restore Disk Space Usage Amount in Vista ​

   Information

By default Vista allocates 15% of your selected hard drive volume to storing System Restore points after installation. If System Restore is turned on much later, it may only allocate a minimum of 30% of the available free space instead. When the allocated space fills up with restore points, System Restore will delete the older restore points to make room for the new ones. System Restore needs at least 300 MB allocated to it to run, and will not run on a hard drive smaller than 1 GB. In the Vista Business and Ultimate versions, this area is also where backup copies of deleted or changed files are stored and made available through the Previous Versions feature (Shadow Copy). For more information about the Vssadmin command, see: Microsoft Technet: Vssadmin

   Note

System Restore needs to be turned on to be able to change it's storage size. To turn on System Restore and select what drives Vista is to create restore points for, see: How to Turn System Restore On or Off in Vista

   Warning

• If you shrink the available storage space for a selected drive, Vista will kick out the system restore points and backups on a first-in, first-out basis. The oldest restore point will be deleted as the new one is saved when out of available max space. This will, of course, leave you with fewer restore options.
• If you dual boot with Windows XP, then everytime you start in XP the System Restore Points and all except the most recent Complete PC Backup files in Vista get deleted. For how, see: How to Stop System Restore Points from being Deleted in Vista when Dual Booting with XP

   Tip

If you just want to free up some space, then you can run Disk Cleanup instead.

STEP ONE

How to See the Current Allocated System Restore Size

1. Open a elevated command prompt.​

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2. If prompted by UAC, click on Continue.​

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3. In the elevated command prompt, type vssadmin list shadowstorage and press Enter. (See screenshots below)​

NOTE: This will give your the details on the Used, Allocated, and Maximum spaces of Shadow Copies for the available disks that you selected to have restore points created for in step 6 here: How to Turn System Restore On or Off in Vista. The left screenshot is for just one drive selected, and the right screenshot is for two drives (C & D ) selected.​

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Result	Description
Used	This is the amount currently used on the hard disk.
Allocated	This is the amount that it has reserved from the hard disk at this time.
Maximum	This is the maximum amount it will allocate and use from the hard disk.

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STEP TWO

How to Change the Maximum System Restore Size

NOTE: If you disable or enable System Restore for a selected drive, the original default values will be set back and the restore points will be deleted. For how, see: How to Disable or Enable System Restore in Vista.

1. In same elevated command prompt window from above, type for EX:​

WARNING: If you change the MAX size to a smaller size than the current Used size shown in METHOD ONE above, then the older restore points will be deleted to adjust to the new size. Nothing will happen to the restore points if you make the MAX size larger than the current Used size shown in METHOD ONE above.​

A) For the listed C: drive, type the command below and press Enter.​

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vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /For=C: /On=C: /Maxsize=[B][COLOR=red]3GB[/COLOR][/B]

B) For the listed D: drive, type the command below and press Enter.​

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vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /For=D: /On=D: /Maxsize=[B][COLOR=red]3GB[/COLOR][/B]

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   Note

See the screenshots below step 5 in OPTION ONE above under the Shadow Copy Storage association line for each drive listed.​

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Command	Description
/For=	The For volume: listed. (Ex: C or D above)
/On=	The Shadow Copy Storage volume: listed. (Ex: C or D above)
/Maxsize=	What you want to limit the maximum storage size of Shadow Copies (restore points) to. For example, # + GB or MB (Ex: 3GB or 3MB) This must be 1MB or larger.

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2. You will get a Successfully resized the shadow copy storage association message.​

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3. If not, repeat step 1.​

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4. If yes, then check with STEP ONE above to confirm the change for the selected drive.​

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5. Close the elevated command prompt when done.​

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That's it,
Shawn



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Related Tutorials

---

• How to Create a System Restore Shortcut in Vista
• How to Create a Create System Restore Point Shortcut in Vista
• How to Create a System Restore Point in Vista
• How to Undo the Last System Restore in Vista
• How to Do a System Restore in Vista
• How to Turn System Restore On or Off in Vista
• How to Use Disk Cleanup in Vista
• How to Restore Previous Versions of a File and Folder in Vista
• How to Stop System Restore Points from being Deleted in Vista when Dual Booting with XP
• How to Change the Automatic System Restore Point Settings in Vista Task Scheduler
• How to Enable or Disable Create Vista System Restore Point when New Device Driver is Installed
• How to Enable or Disable Create Vista System Restore Point when a Application is Installed

 

[Brink]

Lasmar,

What make and model of computer do you have? If it's a OEM (ex: HP, Dell, etc) system, then you might check to see if it has it's own backup type program that came preinstalled eating up space.

 

[lasmar]

Thanks a lot for helping out. I've got a Toshiba Satellite A305 series, and as far as I'm concerned, it doesn't have it's own backup type program. I have no ideia on how to solve this.

 

[Brink]

Lasmar,

I'm not sure what may be eating up your hard drive space either, but you can look under the Disk bar in Resource Monitor to see if it may be able to help you spot what is using so much of your HDD.

In addition the free program WinDirStat can also give you detailed information on what is using your HDD space that may help.

 

[lasmar]

I have finally discovered what was eating up the free space in my computer's hard disc.

Here it is:

As suggested by Brink above, I used the program WirDirStat to map what was using my HDD space. I found out that there was a folder named "PC DM Files" with approximately 50GB full of .dat files. This was due to a program I had previously installed called DRPU PC Data Manager. Obviously, I wasn't able to delete this folder so easily.

So this is how I proceeded:

I started the computer on safe mode with prompt command.
Then I used the command attrib:

attrib -r -a -s -h "C:/Users/Public/Documents/PC DM Files" /s /d

It took a while to de-attribute the folder. Then I ran Explorer.exe and deleted the folder manually. I also removed the folder containing the DRPU PC Data Manager program.

Now I've got all my free space back and I haven't had anymore problems since then.

 

[Brink]

That is great news Lasmar. Thank you for posting back with your results.

 

[patch41]

Hi Brink, just to thank you for a great tutorial,I was up to 17.5-GB, took your advise and resized to 3-GB, took me a couple of try.s being a newbie but finally did it....patch41

 

[Brink]

You're post welcome Patch. Thank you.

 

[sassofalco]

Re: System Restore - More Restore Points Needed [Disk Space?]

My Hard Disk Drive has a nominal capacity of 320GB, which is divided and partitioned into three Drives as follows;

• Acer Drive C: - 139GB
• DATA Drive D: - 79.6GB, and
• DATA Drive K: - 58.5GB

The following are details of my current allocations for Shadow Storage;





I have often felt that I do not have enough space set aside for Shadow Storage, as I usually only have a maximum of between 5 and 6 Restore Points in my Backup and Restore section, and these only go back a matter of just a few days. I don't feel secure with such limitations, and wish to increase the amount of Shadow Storage set aside for Restore Points on each of Hard Disk Drives [HDD].

I note that it is usual to have about 15% of the HDD set aside for this purpose, and am looking for confirmation of this. Given this detail, is it then reasonable that I should set aside the following allocations of Shadow Storage so that I can at least end up with a reasonable reserve of Restore Points?

• Drive C: 21GB of Shadow Storage
• Drive D: 12GB of Shadow Storage and,
• Drive K: 9GB of shadow Storage

I should say that my current allocations as shown in the snip above, were probably set when I had a 120GB HDD on my Laptop.

 

[Brink]

Hello Tony,

It just depends on how many restore points you wish to keep on each HDD, and how often they are created. I say give those new sizes a try for about a week, then make any further size adjustments (up or down) per drive based on how many you have and how old they are. It'll take a little fine tuning to get that perfect balance, but you'll get there.

 

[sassofalco]

G'Day Shawn,

I hope that all is well with you.

Thanks again for some sound and good advice, which I will follow implicitly. As always, I can depend on you to come up with the goods every time, and I will certainly monitor the situation with the new allotments in place.

At the very least I'll be able to sleep easier with more choice of Restore Points, should the need ever arise.......and hopefully not.

Cheers Mate.

Increased Shadow Storage allocations went like a breeze....Thanks Shawn.

 

[Brink]

G'Day Shawn,

I hope that all is well with you.

Thanks again for some sound and good advice, which I will follow implicitly. As always, I can depend on you to come up with the goods every time, and I will certainly monitor the situation with the new allotments in place.

At the very least I'll be able to sleep easier with more choice of Restore Points, should the need ever arise.......and hopefully not.

Cheers Mate.

Increased Shadow Storage allocations went like a breeze....Thanks Shawn.

You're most welcome Tony.

All is doing good so far. Hopefully the same with you.

 

[Grits]

Hi! Newbie here...

Having issues with no space left on my hard drive so here I am....
I already did the *thing* that reduced my space by 1 Gig (directions by Shawn but, can't remember what it was called). Now, I am stuck. If someone can tell me how to do a screen shot, I would be happy to add that to my post so you can see what I am trying to do.

Right now, I am trying to reduce the system restore files to 3gb

here is what I have on my black screen:
Used Shadow Copy - 6.285 GB
Allocated Shadow copy - 6.844 GB
Max Shadow Copy Storage - 14.96 GB

I keep trying to change it to 3GB (per the directions) and I keep getting an error msg that it is an invalid command. I am signed on as the adminstrator, fyi.

I wish I knew how to add a screen shot! I tried to copy/paste but no such luck.

I have a Dell laptop, Inspiron E1505
Right now, this is my current info on my hard drive:
C = 6.82 GB free of 99.7 GB (the bar is all red!)
D (recovery) = 6.24 of 9.99 GB

I hope this is enough info....I hate being so ignorant in this realm!!! Ugh ugh ugh

 

[Brink]

Hello Grits, and welcome to Vista Forums.

The link below can help show you how to do a screenshot of this. It's the same for here.

Screenshots and Files - Upload and Post in Seven Forums - Windows 7 Forums


Double check that you have right clicked on the command prompt shortcut and click on Run as administrator to open a elevated command prompt. Next, double check to make sure that the command was typed in correctly included the spacing.

Hope this helps for now,
Shawn

 

[fieseler]

Make sure that the TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper service is set to automatic when using system restore.

If it' sdisabled, the 'previous versions' shadow copying will not work and you will be unable to use the restore previous versions feature in file properties.

EDIT I've got mine set at 50gb right now, anyone reckon this is kind of overkill?

 

[ariel5345]

Be careful not to over do the shrinking of the restore point memory. Each time Vista or an application is updated a new restore point is generated and old ones may be eliminated if there is not sufficient storage.

In one case this resulted in my no longer having a restore point that I needed. It would be nice to be able to protect a restore point from being eliminated as a result of an undetermined string of automatic update processes. Do you have any instructions on how to do that without increasing restore point memory significantly.

In ccleaner/tools/systemRestore you can control what restore points get erased. You would have to do this manually to keep a certain RP and keep up with it so that Vista doesn't run out of space and delete the one you want to keep.

 

[Slammer]

Awesome, I was actually gonna make a tutorial for this at some point after I discovered it by accident a while back. Saved me a ton of space when I couldn't figure out where it was all going. Glad to have it on the site!

 

[Metrotek]

Shawn, how can a new shadowstorage space be created on an external disk in Windows Vista Home Premium 64 bit with SP2. I read about how to do it but apparently the explanation I read failed to admonish that it didn't work for Windows Vista Home Premium 64 bit with SP2.
Thank you again for your valuable and endless assistance.

 

[Metrotek]

Make sure that the TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper service is set to automatic when using system restore.

If it' sdisabled, the 'previous versions' shadow copying will not work and you will be unable to use the restore previous versions feature in file properties.

EDIT I've got mine set at 50gb right now, anyone reckon this is kind of overkill?

I wish I could get mine working again, you can never have too much; it's saved me a lot of grief hundreds of times. I have mine sized for 40GB....What else am I going to do with three [3] 320GB's drives. I'd rather be safe than sorry.

 

[Brink]

Shawn, how can a new shadowstorage space be created on an external disk in Windows Vista Home Premium 64 bit with SP2. I read about how to do it but apparently the explanation I read failed to admonish that it didn't work for Windows Vista Home Premium 64 bit with SP2.
Thank you again for your valuable and endless assistance.

Hello Metrotek,

What type of external (ex: SATA) HDD is it, and how is it connected (ex: eSATA or USB)?

You will only be able to if it's an external SATA HDD and is connected via eSATA.

 

[Metrotek]

Shawn,
Yes to both. They are little 2.5's in Azio extruded cases. The connection is the ribbon loooking eSATA cable.